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Husker star speaks to students as part of Husker FCA tour

Grant grad Curt Softley joins in tour.

By Kris WilliamsKearney Hub Husker football star Eric Hagg was shooting hoops with local kids in the Indian gym at Broken Bow High School Saturday night, Feb. 5, while he waited to give his Christian testimony to a group of eager fans. Hagg and Curt Softley, a football player from Nebraska Wesleyan University, along with representatives from the Nebraska Fellowship of Christian Athletes stopped in Broken Bow as part of the 2011 FCA Husker Tour. As a child of divorce, Hagg said he lived with his dad and never got much of an opportunity to learn about God. As he got older he started partying and doing his own thing, but God was working in his life and he didn’t even know it, he said. Softley came from a Christian family in the small town of Grant. “I’m a lot like you guys,” he said, adding that when he was younger he didn’t know what it meant to “walk the walk.” “I was very selfish. It was all about me. I was just pleasing myself,” Softley said. He said he thought he was God’s gift to the world because he was good at sports, and he used every excuse he could think of to get out of going to church. When Hagg attended an FCA camp as a high school junior, it was then that he started his walk with God. “But it didn’t really click with me that I could have an intimate relationship with Jesus,” he said. Hagg said he slipped back into his old ways and had bouts of depression, knowing he needed a scholarship to attend college. “I was living my own way, and it wasn’t getting me anywhere,” he said. Softley said it wasn’t until he got older that he realized he needed God. As he waits to see if he’s drafted into the National Football League, Hagg said he is experiencing worry and doubt, but he has an overall peace in his life be-cause he’s given his life to Christ. “I’m just going all out for Christ because that’s what he wants me to do,” Hagg said. Softley told the crowd if they accept the challenge of becoming a Christian it won’t be easy. The challenge is not just to listen to the message of the Gospel, but also to respond to it. Hagg said FCA has taught him how to use God both on and off the field and added that a lot of other Husker football team members are “growing in Christ right now.” If the NFL doesn’t work out for him, Hagg laughed and said he probably will “go home and cry.” He plans to spend draft day in Arizona with his family. He said he would play for any team that wants him, but he is a Green Bay Packers fan because his father is from Wisconsin. Hagg currently is finishing his last 12 hours as an ethnic studies major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During questions and answers, the crowd learned that Hagg’s favorite color is lime green, his favorite animal is a sloth, he doesn’t have a girlfriend at the moment and he feels the same way about the Texas Longhorn football program as the rest of Husker Nation probably does. In a conversation with the Hub, Softley said he participates as a speaker in the FCA Husker Tour “because spreading the Gospel is the most important thing in the world.” He is engaged to be married in June and has a great time “hanging out with Eric Hagg.”